Introducing the 2017 Rays walkup music bracket!

The Rays have their first off-day of the entire month today, so let’s lighten things up a bit.

The history of the walk-up song is an interesting and somewhat convoluted one which we don’t need to go in-depth about here, but the act of choosing a song to represent yourself publicly is ingrained into baseball these days, and what song a player picks can say a lot about the player himself.

The Rays have 29 players with official songs listed for them on the team’s website. The songs range from Marilyn Manson to Jeremy Camp and everywhere in between. Over the course of the next five off-days, the winner of the Rays’ best walk-up/walk-in song will be determined.

A few rules:

• The songs listed on the Rays’ website are the ones being used. Sure, the song may have changed since this list was made, but this is the best source for the whole roster in one spot and trying to chase down song changes midseason can be a harrowing adventure.
• You don’t necessarily have to be on the active roster to participate. You’re welcome, Blake Snell.
• No touching of the hair or face.

And that’s it. Today will be the only portion of this bracket that isn’t decided by the lovely readers at DRB. I’m using my walk-up commissioner powers to trim the list down from 29 to 16, and the readers will vote from there. I’ll be shoving my opinion in the readers’ faces before each vote, but you all will determine the winners.

On to the cuts

Chase Whitley - Lift Your Head Weary Sinner (Crowder): I’m going to be honest, country-rock songs don’t stand much of a chance in my cuts. But fear not, there’s a potential remedy at the end of this article if you’re dying for Crowder to go on a run.

Corey Dickerson - Take My Life (Jeremy Camp): This song is clearly working for Dickerson this season, but I just can’t take this music video seriously. So it gets cut.

Jesus Sucre - Creme A Mi (Jay the Prince): This song, at least according to YouTube, says it features Jose Reyes. I’m guessing that’s not the Mets’ shortstop, but I really want it to be.

Jumbo Diaz - Me Llueven (Bad Bunny): Apparently this song is very popular (43.5+ million views on YouTube), but at the risk of sounding like the classic Old White Guy, I’m slightly confused as to why.

Kevin Kiermaier - Hustlin’ (Rick Ross): Never been a Rick Ross guy, sorry.

Mallex Smith - Long Journey (Lil Boosie): I know it looks like we’re really on an anit-hip hop run right now. Don’t worry, there’s plenty of it in the final 16. Lil’ Boosie ain’t making the cut.

Matt Andriese - Thief (Ookay): I’m guessing there’s some inside joke here, but this was my hardest pass yet. The song is worse than just ookay. It’s a severe no.

Peter Bourjos - Flatliner (Cole Swindell): My heavy anti-country bias would have kicked in regardless here, but even country fans like Danny agree this is an objectively bad song… Sorry y’all.

Rickie Weeks Jr. - Better Believe It (Lil Boosie): I take back what was said about Lil’ Boosie, this one is great, and was my last song cut. We’re going to have an opportunity to save one of the songs I’ve eliminated at the end of this article, and this song will be my choice in the poll below.

Blake Snell - Won’t Stop (Meek Mill): Mill suffers a similar fate to his real-life walk-in song adopter, Blake Snell. Back to Triple-A to refine your stuff, Mr. Mill.

Danny Farquhar - Welcome To My House (Flo Rida): I actually weirdly do kind of like Flo Rida, but this song is just too overplayed. I’m pretty sure it has been played at every single high school/college sporting event to ever exist.

Derek Norris - The Beautiful People (Marilyn Manson): This being Norris’ choice is almost perfect enough to carry it into the final 16, given that I’d be equally scared meeting Derek Norris or Marilyn Manson in an alley, but not quite good enough.

Erasmo Ramirez - Vamos A Ponerlos Locos (Mark B): This song just really didn’t do it for me. The music video didn’t do any favors either. That shouldn’t matter. But it does.

Logan Morrison - Humble (Kendrick Lamar): Yes, I am aware it is heresy to cut a Kendrick song before the final 16, but we don’t need two Kendrick songs in te bracket, and it’s fair to say Tim Beckham gets the tiebreaker over Logan Morrison when it comes to Kendrick songs.

Here are the songs that made the cut

Alex Cobb - Intro (The XX)

Austin Pruitt - Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana)

Brad Miller - Tha Crossroads (Bone Thugs-N-Harmony)

Chris Archer - Voodoo Child (Jimi Hendrix)

Colby Rasmus - Wolfpac (Jimmy Hart & Howard Helm)

Curt Casali - Can’t Stop (Red Hot Chili Peppers)

Daniel Robertson - Something Just Like This (The Chainsmokers & Coldplay)

Alex Colome - Tiempos (Lapiz Conciente)

Evan Longoria - Down And Out (Tantric)

Jake Odorizzi - Country Grammar (Nelly)

Jose Alvarado - No Olvido Mi Pueblo (Ozzie Tales)

Steven Souza Jr. - Space Jam (Quad City DJs)

Tim Beckham - DNA (Kendrick Lamar)

Xavier Cedeno - Daria Mi Vida Por Ella (Victor Manuel)

Matt Duffy - When The Levee Breaks (Led Zeppelin)

Now you may be noticing that there are only 15 songs that made the cut. You may also be thinking that there is a song in the cut list that you really want to see move on to the bracket of 16.

So here’s you chance. Vote in the poll below for one of the 14 songs that was tyrannically cut by yours truly, and that song will be “un-cut” to join the final 16 as the wild card.

So vote away, and next time we will assign a random number to each of the final 16 and begin the bracket. Until then, enjoy the tunes.

Please note: Google AMP and Apple News do not transpose our polls. Please go to the full DRaysBay to vote.